About SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization?

One of the most effective ways to get targeted traffic to your website is through the search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank in the top results for keyword searches related to your business. By ranking in the top search results, you will be able to increase visibility for your business, generate targeted traffic to your website and establish your credibility online. You could miss out on incredible opportunities when consumers cannot find your website. With the help of an SEO Expert, you will be able to increase your sales, grow your customer base and get an advantage over your competition.

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What is SEO?

Watch our video on Search Engine Optimization. This video will give you a better understanding of what SEO is and how it could help your business. If you are interested in our SEO services, please book a strategy session.

Why is SEO effective for businesses?

There are several reasons why SEO is such an effective digital marketing strategy. Firstly, you are using keywords to target users that are specifically searching for products and services that you are selling. Secondly, appearing in the top results for major keyword searches will give your business visibility, brand recognition, and credibility. Consumers rely on the search engine results to help them find reliable and reputable businesses. Thirdly, it is a cost-effective way to build a revenue stream for your business. With the help of an SEO Expert, you can get rankings for your keywords and increase the number of sales. Becoming an authority in search engines through SEO takes time. SEO experts often need 4 to 12 months to first implement improvements and then see the potential benefit, which is confirmed by Google. Search Engine Optimization can be quite complex, therefore, it is recommended to work with an SEO Specialist.

What is the difference between PPC & SEO?

PPC often comes up in a conversation when talking about the search engines. PPC, Pay Per Click, is an advertising model where you pay to get your advertisement displayed in the search engine results. The big difference between PPC and SEO is that PPC is a paid model. You bid a price per click and every time a visitor clicks on your ad, you are charged based on your bid price. SEO, on the other hand, is a strategy where you organically rank in the search results through the right optimization techniques and strategies.

Data has shown that SEO is far more effective than PPC. 94% of consumers click on organic search results on Google versus 6% that click on paid advertisements. Consumers trust organic search results more than paid advertisements. PPC is marked as sponsored, so consumers know that an advertiser is paying for results as opposed to a site that has earned its rankings.

What is Local
SEO?

Local SEO means that you are targeting people that are in your city or specific mile radius. Local Search Engine Optimization allows businesses to reach people that are actually relevant to them instead of targeting people that they cannot service due to their location. It is a great channel for businesses like restaurants, cosmetic dentists, spas, and lawyers.

One aspect of Local SEO is listing your business in local business directories. Local SEO is important because consumers use the search engines to look for businesses in their area. They also go online to look for business reviews so they can compare multiple businesses and verify which businesses are credible and trustworthy. Most of these searches have a high commercial intent meaning that these searches are more likely to lead to a sale. With more people using mobile devices to browse the Internet, the number of local searches is constantly increasing.

Which factors are important for Google?

Doing what is good for your website visitors is generally also good for SEO.
To get a better understanding, you can find various Google ranking factors below.

Content

Create compelling, relevant and unique content for your website. Avoid duplicate or near-duplicate content. The topic of your website should be clear by using keywords and variations of your keywords. In addition, it is important that your content does not have any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Relevance

‘Relevance’ describes to what extent your content is in line with the keywords that were used in Google. A low bounce rate (the number of visitors that leave your website) shows Google that your content is relevant for your website visitors.

Site Structure & Navigation

Create a good site structure and navigation for your website, a naturally flowing hierarchy. This is not only important for the user experience, it also leads to a better crawling of your content by Google.

URLs

Create well-structured URLs with words that are relevant to your website’s content. This not only leads to a better crawling of search engines, it also makes it easier for users to navigate on your website and it is ‘friendlier’ to share your URL. Remember that your URLs are also visible in the search results, below the title and snippet.

Keywords

Keywords are the words that people type into Google, they use these words to find what they are looking for. It is, therefore, important to use keywords in your URLs, page titles, content and anchor text. Keywords that are related to the topic of your website. People who know a lot about your topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. Use, therefore, variations of your keywords.

Page Title Tags

A Page Title Tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. Page Title Tags are displayed in the first line of the search results, it helps users to understand if a page is relevant for them. The Page Title Tag could list the name of your business and other important information such as location, topic, product or service.

Description Images

Images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimize them as well. All images can have a distinct filename and “alt” attribute. The “alt” attribute or, also known as “Alt Text“, allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason.

Internal linking

‘Internal linking’ is linking from one page on your website to another page on your website. Internal linking not only helps Google to crawl your website better, it also creates an opportunity to keep your website visitor on your website, which shows Google that you offer relevant content.

Outbound link quality

The quality of outbound links, links from your website to other websites, has an influence on how Google values your website. Linking out to high authority websites that are related to your business not only helps Google to understand your niche, it also increases the trust and authority of your website.

Mobile-friendly

The world is going mobile. Many people use their mobile phone on a daily basis and the majority of people search on Google’s mobile search page. Google finds it, therefore, of significant importance to have a mobile-friendly website. People who visit your website should have an experience that is optimized for their device.

Social media

Give your business or brand visibility and exposure through social media. People know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other people to it. The links from social media to your website create ‘link juice’. It shows Google that you are a credible source, which could effectively boost your SEO.

Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. Backlinks are a signal to Google that you offer valuable content. If many sites link to the same web page or website, Google thinks that your content is worth linking to. It could, therefore, have a positive impact on your rankings.

There are many other factors that are important for Google.
Therefore, in order to get results, it is recommended to work with an SEO Expert.